(History) – An ammunition ship explodes while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 332 people on this day in 1944. The United States’ World
War II military campaign in the Pacific was in full swing at the time. Lack of
training and poor procedures led to the disaster.

Port Chicago, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, was developed into a munitions facility when the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, CA,
could not fully supply the war effort.

ROSS SIMPSON

In New York on this day in 2002, a ceremony was held to officially
mark the end of the clean up from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

On this day in 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19.

Bronze statue of Joan of Arc on Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

On this day in 1982,  MLB legend Cal Ripken Jr. began his record-
breaking streak of 2,632 consecutive games played. He entered
the Orioles’ lineup and didn’t leave until three more presidents
were inaugurated and nearly two decades passed.

Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. will be 58 August 24.

Benjamin David "Benny" Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986)

Benny Goodman was a jazz clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King
of Swing". In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular musical
groups in the United States. His bands launched the careers of many major
jazz artists.

MIKE GRACIA

Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL. on this day in 1965.

King delivering a speech on the steps of the State Capitol.

In New York City on this day in 1911, 146 women were killed in fire
at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The owners
of the company were indicted on manslaughter charges because
some of the employees had been behind locked doors in the
factory. The owners were later acquitted and in 1914 they were
ordered to pay damages to each of the twenty-three families that
had sued.

On this day in 1997, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush’s 85th
birthday was celebrated by a skydiving adventure at 9500 feet over 
Yuma, Arizona.

Aretha Franklin,1960

Aretha Franklin in April 2016.

Singer Aretha Louise Franklin is 76 years young today.

In 2017, Franklin canceled a series of concerts due to health reasons. During
an outdoors Detroit show, Franklin told the audience to "keep me in your
prayers". In July 2017, Franklin reemerged, appearing to lose more weight
before a performance at the Wolf Trap in Virginia.

Sir Elton Hercules John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight) is 71 today.

Rock and roll legend Elton John has sold over 250 million albums in a
career that’s spanned over 50 years. He is best known for such hit songs
as "Rocket Man," "Tiny Dancer," "Bennie and the Jets" and "Candle in
the Wind." He began playing the piano at age three and won a junior
scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.

MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration
camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris on this day in 1973.

At Cape Kennedy, FL, on this day in 1967, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

Mozart was born on this day in 1756.

Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945)

Jerome Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular
music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the
early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage
works, including such classics as "Ol’ Man River", "Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat
Man", and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

On this day in 1945, Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw
during World War II.

In his farewell address on this day in 1961, President Eisenhower
warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a
magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan on this
day in 1995.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947)

Al Capone was the best known gangster in the 1920’s.

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) 
(January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016)

Ali became a boxing icon as well as a peace activist.  He was
known as "The Greatest," recording 56 career wins, 37 of them
by knockout, in his 61 professional bouts. In 1960, he won the
gold medal in the light heavyweight class at the Summer
Olympic Games in Rome. His boxing style was described as
fast, strong, and graceful, and he developed the famous slogan
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

President George W. Bush presents the Presidential
Medal of Freedom to boxer Muhammad Ali in 2005.